Hide & Seek - Alyssa Brugman [23]
'So I guess you made friends with the circus people without me,' Shelby joked, trying to lighten the mood.
'You should see what they do! They stand up on the horse's back and do spins and hang off the side. It's amazing! I reckon you and Keisha would get on really well. She's about our age,' Chad said. 'Zeb is cool too. He's Keisha's grandfather. Zeb has been training horses since he was about ten years old. All they do is talk about horses all the time. You would fit in perfectly.'
Shelby bit her lip. Her first instinct had been that she would get along well with the circus people too, but now there was 'the barney'. She had been friends with Erin and Lindsey for a long time and she'd only just met Chad. She didn't know whom to believe, and now she felt as though they were both asking her to choose a side.
'They didn't steal the horse, Shelby,' Chad said.
'How did Diablo get there then?' she asked.
'I don't know, but they say they didn't steal him and I believe them. Why would they? They have a trillion other horses that are better looking and can do way more cool stuff than Diablo. He's nice, but he's just a horse.'
Shelby hadn't thought about Diablo that way before. She had always seen Diablo the way that Lindsey and her mum did – as the best and most valuable horse on their property.
She supposed people would look at Blue differently to the way she did as well. People who didn't know Blue would wonder why she kept him when he was kind of ugly and too small for her, and not good at anything except galloping around in the bush. But Shelby loved him. Blue was her best friend.
'You should come and meet them,' Chad told her. 'They are much more interesting than Lindsey Edel and her mum – trust me.'
Shelby flushed. 'Lindsey is my friend, Chad. The Edels have been really good to me. They keep Blue for me, and they arranged for me to have lessons with a proper instructor.'
Chad snorted. 'If they're such good friends then maybe you could make them stop ruining my life.'
15 Operation Beelzebub
Connor was in his pyjamas, sitting on his father's lap, reading from a thick book. Blake was lying on his stomach on the floor, colouring in. His hair was still wet from his bath. Shelby could see the comb marks.
'William the conkwee . . . conkwee-err . . .' Connor read.
'Conqueror,' corrected his father.
'Conqueror arrived in one thousand and . . .'
'Ten sixty-six,' Dad said. 'It's a year.'
Connor rubbed his eyes.
'You're tired. I think that's enough for tonight.' His father smoothed a hand across Connor's forehead.
'One more paragraph!' Connor insisted.
'One more sentence.'
As Shelby approached she could see the title, A Guide to London. She huffed and dropped into the armchair with a thud.
'Why don't you want to go to London, Shel?' asked Blake, leaning on one elbow and chewing the end of his pencil.
'I do want to go to London. I just don't want to live at Aunty Jenny's house for a year and a half beforehand.' She glared at her father. 'So you've decided then. Nice of you to let me know.'
'No, we have not decided and you watch yourself, missy. You might officially be a teenager now, but that's not an excuse to be rude.'
'Fine!' Shelby stood up and stomped into the kitchen.
'What's that face all about?' her mother asked.
'Just my whole life is falling apart and nobody cares!'
'I care. Truly!' Shelby's mum held out a bag of potatoes and a peeler.
'You just want a slave!' Shelby complained.
'How about an exchange? Clearly we need to launch an investigation about this whole Diablo business. I'll help you plan your operation if you help me cook the dinner.'
'Really?' Shelby grinned. 'You would do that?'
Her mother nodded. Shelby's mother was a part-time store detective. She was also doing a course at TAFE in surveillance and investigation, so she pretty much had a degree in solving mysteries.
'I know what we need!' Shelby put down the potato she was peeling and jogged down the hall-way. In a moment she was back with her brothers' blackboard under her arm. She placed